*In order for organizations to thrive in the 21st century global economy, knowledge workers must be allowed the flexibility and discretionary authority to offload their non-core busy work to help propel future success. From business research and data analysis to the creation of documents and other routine support, pressing the pfizerWorks ez button unburdens employees so they can implement business strategy and seek innovation *Examples of this non-core work include: data searches (business or market); manipulating data, merging spreadsheets, creating dashboards, flowcharts or graphs; creating documents (presentations, posters, meeting materials); transcribing flip chart or meeting notes; and data entry to name just a few

Context

pfizerWorks offers Pfizer colleagues customized, just in time knowledge worker support – available 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, on demand at literally the click of a button. Goal: to allow Pfizer colleagues to ditch their busy-work to focus on core knowledge work.

Triggers

In 2005, with the anticipated loss of patent protection for Lipitor and no potential blockbuster in the pipeline to fill the anticipated revenue gap, Pfizer was looking for ways to cut costs and increase efficiencies. They launched an initiative called Adapting to Scale, aimed at centralizing and standardizing processes to improve operational efficiencies. Much to their credit, senior management empowered employees to help find solutions to increasing productivity and find smart bottom line savings

Like most organizations, managers at Pfizer spend a great deal of time attending meetings and it’s only after hours that they can dedicate significant time to think critically, develop strategies and pursue innovation. In particular, I noticed one of my employees Paul, an MIT graduate, routinely spending time after hours doing mind-numbing work or tasks that were not only below his pay grade, but not core to his role. I knew there had to be a way to unburden him from this ‘lower value’ work so he can increase his productivity and have greater work/life balance

At the same time, I was reading Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, a book that discusses the interconnectedness of the world’s economies and the rising access that developed nations now have (thanks to the internet), to lower cost support. This led me to consider taking advantage of the global marketplace to address the needs of Pfizer’s knowledge workers and set them free to focus on core responsibilities while also providing the opportunity to do the more innovative and stimulating work that makes coming to work something to look forward to

So I thought, why couldn’t this work be transferred to others in or outside of the US, on a task by task basis? I decided to implement a study over a six month period, recruiting colleagues to track how they spent their time in a typical workday. This study revealed that colleagues were spending upwards of 20 – 40% of their time in non-core work, taking them away from the collaboration, networking and strategy development they are so valued for. Offloading these tasks would be a huge driver for engagement and productivity

Key Innovations & Timeline

Q4 2005

What started out as an idea quickly became an obsession coupled with relentless self-learning. I immersed myself in reading everything I could on business excellence and innovation and networked with anyone and everyone to expand my knowledge of the industry and come up with early strategies to position the idea for success

Q2 2006

The alpha prototype was built and tested. Q4 2006 enhancements addressed what didn’t work

Q1 2007

A pilot program was implemented to test if the concept worked on a small scale to build the business case in which to secure approval and funding

Q1 2008

This low-cost system allows individual employees to leverage global vendor capabilities at the click of a button (literally) to secure support for business research, data analysis and creating documents in a ‘one-stop-shop’ manner. This offers each colleague the flexibility to custom tailor support to his or her own needs. This type of ‘support-sourcing’ at the employee level, while not without challenges, it is slowly becoming the new normal at Pfizer

Today

When an employee needs help with a task or a project, they simply click the pfizerWorks ez button or icon on their Outlook tool bar which brings them to the Task Management System’s homepage where a service line is selected. A request form presents, which the employee populates with project details and attaches supporting documents. The submit button sends the work to a partner who responds with a follow up phone call within an hour, to make certain they understand the scope of work to be done. A project cost estimate is calculated and sent to the customer who can then either accept or reject the work based on a personal cost-benefit. Once the work is completed, the customer supplies feedback through the system which allows us to track and measure the effectiveness of partners as well as track users and usage trends. This not only allows for continuous improvement along the way but also allows employees to easily secure and assign resources, manage projects to a timeline, deliver output, be invoiced, pay for the work direct from their cost center and provide feedback on the deliverable as well as their total experience (an all new concept)

While initially meant to provide support for ‘lower value’ needs, pfizerWorks has proven that it can take on some high value work traditionally given to highly skilled, external consultants and vendors. For example, in addition to extracting thousands of pieces of data from a database and preparing Excel pivot table reports, pfizerWorks analysts can also develop code to turn the workbook into an automated tool for high level analysis; and similarly, in addition to searching for the market data to determine if a particular business need exists, pfizerWorks professionals can organize the data from which to build the business case and prove its viability. This ‘high value’ work magnifies savings exponentially because it has the potential to reduce the traditional need for high cost external vendors and consultants, offering great savings

Consider Tom’s pfizerWorks experience: Late one Friday afternoon, Tom, Director of Strategic Planning and Analysis, got a call from his manager, asking him to prepare a complex business analysis for the following Wednesday. Before pfizerWorks, Tom would be planning weekend work and engaging the efforts of high-priced consultants. Instead, he placed a pfizerWorks request from his laptop before catching the train home, followed by a phone conversation while en route. By Monday morning, the information was delivered via email for Tom’s analysis and by close-of-business Tuesday, the analysis was ready for his manager. pfizerWorks gave Tom the irreplaceable gift of time, cost less in terms of money and management energy, and helped him finish the work more quickly than ever before

Maryann’s core responsibility is to further continuous improvement efforts across all departments. For this project, her group designed and implemented the survey but then was able to hand the raw feedback to the pfizerWorks data team to analyze and quantify for outcomes reporting and sharing of insights throughout the business. Most survey software will provide basic reporting along with a list or report of feedback comments to be further analyzed. At the Continuous Improvement group’s direction, the pfizerWorks team was able to categorize those feedback comments and include them with the scoring data for greater impact. They then performed an in-depth analysis and summary of the data for reporting purposes, saving the CI group from having to do this non-core work themselves

Above and beyond that though, because pfizerWorks offers a range of integrated services, they were able to provide Maryann with a complete end-to-end solution. She not only needs to collect the feedback data, she needs to share the insights gathered from the survey throughout the organization to help guide the continuous improvement efforts at the site level. At this point, in steps the design team. They quickly take the reporting data and create a professionally designed, bi-annual report, which was then ushered through production. “In what seems like a blink of an eye, the final printed reports were delivered and I didn’t have to get bogged down in dealing with an agency or coordinating with a printer.” In addition to time and costs saved, pfizerWorks’ ability to work as a complete end to end solution allowed Maryann to focus on her core work and made her life a lot easier

Challenges & Solutions

Challenge: Securing support services in a large corporation is typically fragmented – no one place for knowledge workers to secure the bundled support necessary to drive an entire initiative to completion Fix: pfizerWorks, a one stop shop for knowledge worker support.

Challenge: The model for knowledge worker support in the way that I envisioned did not exist Fix: Identify a vendor who would partner in this new way (on demand, 24/5 at highest quality and lowest cost)

Challenge: The inertia in large organizations to resist change – help employees to overcome the barriers that exist (risk, fear, trust), to step out of their comfort zone and do things differently Fix: Make it EASY, ensuring QUALITY results and provide a delightful customer EXPERIENCE

Challenge: Make it EASY Fix: Build a ‘one click’ system to access support

Challenge: Ensure QUALITY results Fix: A quality program for continuous improvement was implemented in back office User training to ensure employees successfully detail their project for desired results. A gap often exists between an employee knowing what he needs and describing those needs The contract with the partner was heavily weighted toward ensuring a good result project by project and penalties were built in for outright experience failures

Challenge: Ensure a delightful customer EXPERIENCE Fix: pfizerWorks partners must undergo rigorous customer service training in order to realize the importance of and how to handle the Pfizer colleagues with care

Challenge: Personally drive the change to help usher in ACCEPTANCE Fix: Ask colleagues to rate each experience Leveraging existing colleague relationships to get them to try the service Hold colleague hands to ensure results Ask them to advocate for pfizerWorks in their internal network Challenge colleagues to put us to the test by offering a risk-free trial period where they could perform their own side by side comparison

Challenge: Drive overall program SUCCESS Fix: Refocus knowledge workers to do what they do best Free them from work that saps their productivity Give them back the joy that comes with doing the work that excites them. committed, and productive colleagues are Pfizer’s most precious resource Stay true to the idea that highly skilled, committed, and productive colleagues are Pfizer's most precious resource.

Benefits & Metrics

Benefit: Increased worker productivity to refocus knowledge workers to do what they do best Metric: After less than one year, pfizerWorks has given colleagues back 66,000 hours of self-reported, productive time that can be re-focused on high value work Benefit: Cost savings Metric: pfizerWorks has delivered substantial savings in external vendor spend (work that would have been sent to higher cost, external vendors) Benefit: Give colleagues back the joy that comes with doing the work that excites them Metric: PRICELESS!

Lessons

Know what is critically important vs. important vs. nice to have (prioritize in this manner)

Use your informal network just as much or more than the formal hierarchy

Know what is important to you personally and never lose sight of your strengths and weaknesses

Be passionate and show your excitement – if not, the audience/customers won’t get excited either

Very innovative re-organization of work! Two broad questions jump to mind:

(1) Sustainability *outside* pfizerWorks

The emphasis on core responsibility implies role clarity has to remain constantly high. So, core responsibilities either need to be deeply conceptually strategic (i.e., multi-contextual or 'future proof') or revisited regularly.

Do core responsibilities substantially change? If yes, how does the system respond?

(2) Sustainability *inside* pfizerWorks

First you tease apart core and non-core. Then you source non-core activities to the work group The end result, individuals at a certain pay level stop doing non-core tasks experiencing 20-40% recuperation of time. Individuals then self manage.

The second half of the equation though, I think, is where non-core work goes. Part of the goal is not simply to redistribute work but to connect people with tasks that interest and engage them. What I'm dawning on here is, some one has to do the "dirty work".

My question is, how have people *inside* the pfizerWorks groups responded? I think we can agree, if all one does is respond to mind numbing tasks on a 24/5 basis, the risks for turnover/absenteeism/burnout/disengagement/etc are greater.

Is there a strategic concern about sustainability - i.e., well-being, engagement (or other KPIs of choice) - inside the pfizerWorks environment?

Re core responsibilities. Core responsibilities can and do change. In some cases they may change a lot. However, the focus of this program is on output of the knowledge worker. The pfizerWorks solution helps employees work better, faster and less expensively.

Re sustainability. You are correct; the support work that is imbedded into all our jobs can be stripped out to be done some other way. It turns out that with some scale one and design super-efficient ways to execute the work in a way that is measureable. If you build a high performing team and give them stretch (but appropriate) targets amazing things can happen. This has been our experience.

I do agree with shortage of talents and time.
Just for the sake of playing devil's advocate and break unique thought : are the 20 to 40% of non core activities somehow useful, despite the waste ?

I had a boss that used to request fast and fruitful thinkers to give and take soaking time to their ideas.
And to rest their mind, like athletes cannot train 8 hours a day without illegal drugs.
For sure having a walk in a nice forest would be better, but filling an excel spreadsheet, or seeking for info on the web and rebounding on an expected lead can be relaxing and/or surprisingly productive.
Taking time for socializing is also key, especially for people with demanding concentration work.

Let say we should save up to 20% by outsourcing, yet do not push our minds to 100% efficient core mission activities, at least on the long run.
We could dry out, square down or burn out all of our rare and precious talented resources.
80/20 rule should allow fresh and open-minded socialized brains.

I think we are on the same page. I believe it is the professional that is in the best position to determine what to do with his/her time. If she thinks she needs time to recharge the batteries and go for a run – then she should do that. In the right environment, I think the power of the mind is endless and can renew itself – in the wrong environment, companies don’t get the most of what their employees have to offer and the day to day activities can be mind numbing. Jordan

It's truly an inspiring story. Cohen is innovative in shifting tasks rather than jobs. By observing and by puting lot of extra effort, he came out with a new model of engagement with external parties. Organizations across the globe, desparately need more Cohen's to leverage the resources available in the Flat World.

Great story. Enjoyed it. I have participated in a few "policy deployment" projects over the past few years and found it to follow the path you have been following for different businesses. One of the more powerful steps is "project deselection" - stopping non-core work/projects.

Business process outsourcing is not new and its returns in efficiency and cost savings well documented in myriad cases. The gorgeous quality of Cohen's story is that its essence and teaching are not about about BPO mechanics.
These are the things that move me about this innovation. A "servant" leader observing with empathy the nature of work as experienced by his team. His concern and courage to question the way we work today and reimagine it. Then he invests himself personally in making the change happen with no experience in the complexities of making BPO work. Significantly ,Cohen turns first not to power brokers but to building a quiet coalition across his network, a combination of stealth and social tactics. As the concept ripens,he engages leadership support and translates his insight and inspiration into execution and measurement metrics "the man" can understand. At no point does he pass the parcel to his O&S division. Cohen nurtures this baby all the way (while still doing the day job!).
Outsourcing tasks not jobs is a briliant idea ,in this case elegantly realised from prototype to its current maturity and emergent expansion. However , for me, the management miracle here is the engaged leader on full sensory alert to the needs of his team and to improving the design of work. He and his colleagues amplified the meaning of P&L, yes bottom line benefits but so do People and their Lives. Thank you Jordan C et al for this multi-faceted innovation.

Really great innovation. What I find most appealing about pfizerWorks is the focus on the individual, rather than the department or company. Most managers tend to limit themselves to innovations that benefit their P&L or their own department, or evaluate things in that perspective. In comparison, Jordan and his team treated the individual as the core unit of analysis in our workplaces. I'd love to see this service be available to more people.

Very interesting. A new way to approach outsourcing that employees will see as non-threatening. Outsourcing specific non-productive aspects of people's jobs as opposed to large scale lift and shift. Traditional lift and shift outsourcing produces savings but also organizational havoc, demoralization and can often incur a long-term hidden cost in lost institutional knowledge. This seems like an interesting response to the shortcomings of traditional outsourcing.

I really want for this initiative to be successful, so that so many other organizations in Pharma can see this model working. However, initiatives conceived @ HQ are usually perverted, diverted, or diluted significantly by the time any effect is felt on the production floor. The phrase "knowledge workers" sets up artificial stratification and perpetuates classist tendencies to elitism. ALL WORKERS ARE KNOWLEDGE WORKERS! Pfizer makes medicine. How do the people who tend the money tree in manufacturing influence and effect positive change? Are they permitted to? If so, are they equipped to? If so, are they empowered to? Discussion of paradigm-shifting and change management are great, but what is happening where the rubber meets the road?
Respectfully submitted for general consideration.

I really want for this initiative to be successful, so that so many other organizations in Pharma can see this model working. However, initiatives conceived @ HQ are usually perverted, diverted, or diluted significantly by the time any effect is felt on the production floor. The phrase "knowledge workers" sets up artificial stratification and perpetuates classist tendencies to elitism. ALL WORKERS ARE KNOWLEDGE WORKERS! Pfizer makes medicine. How do the people who tend the money tree in manufacturing influence and effect positive change? Are they permitted to? If so, are they equipped to? If so, are they empowered to? Discussion of paradigm-shifting and change management are great, but what is happening where the rubber meets the road?
Respectfully submitted for general consideration.

Great initiative indeed and very cool. I imagine that this approach can potentially change the economics of a business in some radical ways. With the ease of pressing a button, the advantages of globalization can be accessed.

I run a company of about 100 consultants in six offices. I wonder whether Pfizerworks would give access to the same system? Why not, it does not create any competitive disadvantages and if Pfizer would choose such a direction, it would greatly benefit. It would position Pfizer as a company beyond pharmaceuticals and health care, a company that is a management innovator.

I would also extend the initiative by creating an entire marketplace for the work. At the push of the button, the market place is activated and approved suppliers can bit on the work. In my company situation, even other offices could bit and hence our utilization would increase.

Research shows that variation in company performance between the best performer and poor performers increases in direct proportion to the intensity of knowledge workers in the industry; i.e the higher the percentage of knowledge workers - higher the performance gap. With more and more of the economy (an companies) relying on knewledge services and innovation for growth and competitveness. One of the biggest challenges in the post crisis world (if we are in one yet) is knowledge worker productivity. Having been closely involved in this project as a partner from intial set up phase, i believe this model provides a great opportunity to address that challenge. All of us face the challenge everyday, all of us intuitively understand the sheer benefit of this on time and efficiency but I think we underestimate the effect it has on effectiveness - value addition and innovation from the knowledge worker when the person is freed from the grunge part of their jobs with the latitude to focus on the real "core" of the problem. This is a really terrific solution for that. Its relatively easy and painless to set up (not to take away real hard work that is required) than many other co-sourcing arrangements and works. Just from the effectiveness angle its worth every effort - the efficiency and savings are a bonus.

I have been fortunate to witness the evolution of pfizerWorks from a small exploratory pilot to a full blown and expanding initiative within Pfizer. Reading the story does make the business case for productivity and cost savings very obvious. To me, though, the growth story that pfizerWorks is driving is even more interesting. I just have to look at the work habits of professionals around me (including my own !), and it is obvious that 50-80% of the time (depending on the time of the Quarter !), we professionals do stuff that is a necessary evil, before we can get down to deriving insights or implementing initiatives. Also this "necessary evil" (and I agree that is somewhat of an exaggeration), is bigger for some people than others. There was a time I could do pretty fancy macros in Excel but now even the thought of doing a VLOOKUP gives me nerves ! This cries out for process and that is precisely what pfzerWorks does. The point though is that there is ever increasing need to focus on developing and implementing growth ideas and the organisations and professionals need to consciously free up time to think, conceptualise and implement. I believe that growth enabling trait of pfizerWorks will make this an even more successful idea, even though that is hard to measure using the conventional metrics.

This is an incredible story of passion and perserverance -- pfizerworks is a great story on how one person's drive can make a huge difference in a large complex organization. It really speaks of not only innovation and creativity but truly believing in what you are doing -- it gives a great picture of what can be done - if you have the passion and commitment to get it done. "No" was never understood -- even though it was said a 1000 times. Jordan is making a great contribution to Pfizer!!!

I have seen Jordan's work in action. At a fundamental level, it enables leaders at all levels, and especially at more junior levels, to quickly understand the power of letting go of what others can do so you can do what few if any others can. They can get a sense of the real value they can bring and of what they are capable of.

Hi Jordan--
Great article. Is there any specific metrics/tracking data to determine the "new ROI" on the 20-40% of time that used to be
spent on non-core work? If you can get feedback on that showing how the time spent on strategy and innovation resulted
in quantifiable results, you might have the makings for some good testimonials.....Eric Schillinger

This is certainly a new value proposition within BPO and KPO services. I do not know how many within the organization could have single handedly built a vision of a new service line and impressingly connect it with the big change that the organization has to go through. In Pfizer's case, I was particularly impressed with the fact that "TIME TO THINK" is the most essential ingredient required to build the next innovation within the company and how pFizerWorks is helping the overall objective.

What's unique about this particular offshore model is that its an amalgamation of BPO and KPO services. High end analytical work dished out with 7 Star customer service. The pW model should serve as a blueprint for making the 'world flatter' thats for sure.

totally appreciate this. i am in full support of this. many a times i am plagued down with too many business critical work that takes up too much time. As a result, one often lose sight of strategic decisions, or overlook them.

Great article! With information exchanging hands so quickly, and at the rate social media is moving, we're able to retrieve the information we are looking for a lot quicker. But what I see in this system is that you offer 'direct response', with absolute relevance, which then turns that information, into Valuable Information.

My question would be the same as most of the builders below, is how quickly could you get this system implemented, and to be accepted by the whole organization?

You can't argue with saving 66,000 self-reported saved hours and freeing employees' time to do work that they love! I'd like to learn more about the process of getting people to take the risk of using it for the first time. How quickly has it been adopted? How many employees have used it and what is their repeat rate? Way to go!

While I agree the pfizerWorks story tells how one company is helping its knowledge workers take the work out of work, there is an untold story here, one that literally speaks to the ethos of community and citizenship. My company, Pearl Interactive, is a US based contract supplier of BPO services to pfizerWorks. We provide employment opportunities to people with challenges to work, one such segment being homebound, disabled US military veterans. pfizerWorks has specifically contracted with us to partner our vets with Pfizer employees to provide support work. It’s been a very rewarding experience for our vets and I’m sure Pfizer colleagues feel good about helping those who have sacrificed for all of us by serving in the armed forces.